Archives for 4 November 2017

The Volvo Ocean Race 2017-18 shifts into a new phase on Sunday with the start of Leg 2, a 7,000 nautical mile, three-week, marathon leg to Cape Town, South Africa.
It’s one of the iconic legs of this offshore classic, as the teams transition from the North Atlantic, through the Doldrums, into the trade winds and may even dip a toe into the Southern Ocean before the finish in Cape Town, which has already been a stopover host 10 times.
The tactical options on the leg have been opened up this year by the removal of a traditional waypoint, the island of Fernando de Noronha, about 170 nautical miles off the coast of Brazil.
While teams often sail as far west as this to pick up the tradewinds earlier, it adds hundreds of miles to the route to Cape Town. Without this island as a mark of the race course, the shorter, but normally slower option of sailing further east, down the coast of Africa, may be in play.
“It’s a very interesting one, maybe more interesting than in the past,” said Charlie Enright, the skipper of Leg 1 winner, Vestas 11th Hour Racing. “You usually have to go nearly all the way to Brazil… ‘West is best’ as they say…”
But it’s not clear that will be the case this time.
“I think (taking out the waypoint) changes things a lot,” said Sun Hun Kai/Scallywag skipper David Witt. “I think this will be an interesting leg and I think you might see the biggest split you’ve seen for a long time in the Volvo Ocean Race. But we’ll see what happens.”
“For sure you can go more east,” agreed Dongfeng Race Team skipper Charles Caudrelier. “The difference is huge, but it’s a danger (tactically). It’s always a balance and it’s always difficult to know where to go. It will be a nightmare for the navigators.”
“Let’s see. Hopefully the others will go the short way and we’ll keep going west,” said Xabi Fernández. “It’s hard to know. It will be busy for (navigator) Juan Vila. But we trust his instincts and his work and hopefully we have a good crossing of the equator.”
“It’s a leg of 21 or 22 days with technical decisions to make every day,” said Simeon Tienpont, the skipper of team AkzoNobel, who has added the experience of Chris Nicholson, Jules Salter and Peter Van Niekerk to his crew for this leg.
In contrast, for many of the rookie sailors spread across the teams, Leg 2 will be the longest they have been at sea, and a new experience of … [Read more...]

25th Sole Destroyer to Test Athlete’s Endurance this Sunday: FAN SUPPORT – Top South African marathon-runner Lusapho April, a double Olympian, is the official Race Ambassador and will be on hand to motivate runners at the pre-race time trial and at the start and finish on the day. Photo: Oxford Striders FOR 25 years, the Caltex Sole Destroyer half-marathon has tested the endurance and stamina of Border athletes on the “tough but scenic” 21km route through East London’s Horseshoe Valley – and it’s all systems go for this year’s challenge this Sunday (17 September 2017). Hosted by Oxford Striders, the race is named for legendary East London runner Chris Sole and traverses his favourite tracks from his days as a champion schoolboy runner, over the half-marathon route as well as the 9km Sole Teaser. Dillion Pretorius, heading the Sole Destroyer Organising Committee said that arrangements for Sunday’s race are going smoothly and that they are confident that the race is going to be a huge success. “This year we created an online registration portal to make the registration process as accessible as possible and by close of business on Tuesday last week close to four hundred (400) entries was recorded” Pretorius noted. “More than seven hundred (700) runners participated in the 21km half marathon last year and we are confident that the 2017 race will attract even larger numbers” Pretorius added Oxford Striders chairman Dillon Pretorius said the race slogan “Don’t Let it Break You” summed up the challenge, with the first half run on dirt roads, with several challenging hill climbs and descents leading to the aptly-named Heart Break Hill at 7.5km into the race. “At 12.5km athletes are confronted with a leg jarring descent followed by a relatively flat and fast section through East London’s suburbs until at 18.5km they reach the final sting in the tail, the climb up Willasdale Drive,” Pretorius said. Pretorius noted that the race’s naming sponsor, Caltex Eastern Cape Marketer (CECM), has been involved in the event for the past 11 years, contributing to its growth from a small race to “a premier event, and an annual highlight on the East London running calendar”. He said the Caltex sponsorship had enabled the organisers to invest in a top-quality timing system that will improve the timing of races to the next level and contribute to running in the Border region, … [Read more...]